To end an epidemic: lessons from the history of diphtheria

Article Abstract:

The public health campaign against diphtheria in the late 19th century and early 20th century may serve as a model for the fight against AIDs. In the 19th century, diphtheria was prevalent in large American cities. The bacteria that caused diphtheria was identified in the late 1880s. Diphtheria was the first disease successfully treated with an antitoxin and diphtheria vaccine was one of the first to be used in a public health campaign. New York City started a public health campaign against diphtheria in the late 19th century. It included testing those with symptoms, quarantining those who were positive and vaccinating those who were at risk of getting the disease. The campaign against diphtheria educated the public about the cause of the disease, and people were urged to receive treatment and to be immunized. Education of the public and availability of treatment played a major role in stopping the spread of diptheria. The public health campaign against AIDS should include education about transmission of the disease. AIDS testing and treatment should be available to anyone who needs these services.

Management, Epidemics, Diphtheria

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How safe is our food? Lessons from an outbreak of salmonellosis

Article Abstract:

The US needs to improve its surveillance to detect foodborne diseases. An outbreak of Salmonella food poisoning in Minnesota in the Fall of 1994 illustrates the fact that bacterial contamination can be present in very low levels in food, yet cause a nationwide epidemic of food poisoning. Food poisoning is uncommon in developing countries, where most food is produced on farms and distributed locally. In industrialized countries, food is distributed nationwide. In the US, the annual incidence of salmonellosis has increased over the past 50 years. Many farm animals carry Salmonella, and the bacterium can contaminate meat, eggs and milk. In the Minnesota outbreak, salmonellosis was traced to tanker trucks that carried unpasteurized eggs before they picked up and transported the base used to make the ice cream that caused the outbreak. This illustrates that food should be pasteurized at the last possible step. The importation of food from other countries may increase the incidence of food poisoning.

Salmonellosis

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Idiopathic focal segmental glomerulosclerosis: new lessons from kidney transplantation

Article Abstract:

A protein that circulates in the blood could be involved in the development of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis is a disease of the glomeruli, which are the part of the kidney that filters blood. In the past, researchers noticed that many patients who had received a kidney transplant to treat focal segmental glomerulosclerosis developed the condition again almost immediately after surgery. This indicated that a factor circulating in the patient's blood was responsible for the kidney damage. A 1996 study revealed that blood samples from patients with recurring focal segmental glomerulosclerosis increased the permeability of rat glomeruli to albumin. When the patients were treated with plasmapheresis, a procedure that replaces their plasma, their plasma did not increase rat glomeruli permeability. The factor appears to be a protein and it may directly damage glomerular epithelial cells called podocytes.

Glomerulonephritis

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